Tuesday, September 26, 2006

This day, which I've been waiting for for over a month, has finally arrived.

Firstly, for us Canadians, The Weird Al Show: The Complete Series comes out on DVD! All 13 classic episodes of Weird Al's short-lived childrens show from 1997. As I said, it was supposed to come back a month ago, but for reasons unknown, it got pushed back a month for us canucks.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Ladies and gents, November 28 is shaping up to be a phenomenal day on DVD. And it's right at the start of holiday shopping season, so take note! These make good Christmas presents...for me.

First up, November 28 is when Superman Returns comes out on DVD. Now, I did enjoy Superman's return to the big screen. As is the case these days, it'll be available in a single-disc, no bonus features edition, and a 2-disc special edition. Here's what you get for bonus materials on the 2-disc special edition

The 172 minute documentary Requiem for Krypton: Making Superman Returns (dude! That's a whole hour longer than the film!)

A featurette called Resurrecting Jor-El

11 deleted scenes, with all the special effects completed

Kevin Spacey's bloopers

The trailers and TV spots

But, also coming out on that day, for the ultimate Superman fan, is the gigantic, 14-disc boxed set The Ultimate Superman Collection. This set contains every Superman movie ever made. How did they get it up to 14 discs? Well, here's what all is included:

Superman: The Movie - Special Edition (4 discs)

Superman II: Special Edition (2 discs)

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (1 disc)

Superman III: Special Edition (1 disc)

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace - Special Edition (1 disc)

Superman Returns: Special Edition (2 discs)

You Will Believe: The Cinematic Story of Superman (new documentary all about the films. 1 disc)

Look! Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman (1 disc)

Bryan Singer's Journals Extended Editions (Singer's video blog that he made during the making of the film - including 2 episodes never posted online! 1 disc.)

But wait! There's more! Included in the box is a special reprint of Superman #7, a new booklet about the history of Superman, and a mail-away offer for all the film's movie posters!

Also out on November 28 is my favourite film of the summer, Kevin Smith's Clerks II. It'll be a 2-disc special edition, and here's what all you get for bonus features.

Running commentary with the cast and crew

Back to the Well: Making Clerks II (feature length documentary about making the film)

The top 10 episodes of Train Wreck. (Train Wreck was Smith's video blog about making the film...on his message boards, Smith said that you're only getting the top 10, and not all 75.)

Featurettes on the dance sequence and the now-infamous donkey sequence.

And, no Kevin Smith fan would be complete without picking up An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder. This follow-up to An Evening with Kevin Smith documents even more of Kevin Smith's live shows! That's also out on November 28.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm about to make a bold proclimation I thought I'd never say. I'm going to do something I thought I'd never do.

I'm going to buy a membership in the PC Party of Alberta.

Now, I know. Right now, you're shocked and horrified. I've never been a fan of the Tories, never like Ralph Klein, so plese, before you click away, let me explain myself.

As I'm sure you heard, Klein turned in his letter of resignation. The leadership race (which has actually been running since February) has now officially begun. And, being a news hound, all the official news releases from the PC Party came across my desk today.

So here I"m reading the rules of the game. I quote the news release directly:

"We will be conducting a leadership election on the same basis as the one in 1992...one member, one vote! ...we will hold a formal election quite similar to a provincial general election."

Sounds great, don't it? Then I read this sentence. And this is how I came to my decision.

"Any Albertan who meets voting requirements and purchases a PC membership will be able to vote!"

Right there. If you want to vote for the next premier of Alberta, you have to be a member of the party.

I've actually been thinking about this for a while now. About a month ago, I read the statistic in the Edmonton Journal. When you add up all the people in Alberta who are actually members of the Tory party, and factor in voter turnout and voter apathy and all that, do you know how many Albertans will be chosing the next leader of this province?

3%

3% of the people chosing our next leader.

(Well, I don't remember the exact statistic...but I do remember it was a single didget.)

And I don't know about you, but I want to be part of that 3%. I want a say in how my government is run.

So that's why I'm going to be dropping my $5 and joining the Tories. Just for this one election.

And then when a real provincial election rolls around, I'll vote...NOT Tory.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Here in Canada, Weird Al's new album, Straight Outta Lynwood, has been pushed back one week.

It now comes out October 3.

And, here in Canada, it will not be a dualDisc (that's where side 1 is the CD and side 2 is the DVD). Here in Canada, the CD and the DVD will be two seperate discs. And the DVD will not be mixed in 5.1 surround sound or have instrumental versions of the songs.

Friday, September 08, 2006

I just have to take a moment to acknowledge that today, September 8, is the 40th anniversary of Star Trek.

We all know the tale. On this day, back in 1966, the first episode of Star Trek was shown on NBC. The episode was The Man Trap, better known as "the one with the salt vampire." And, to this day, it's celebrated by nerds and trekkies the world over as Star Trek's anniversary.

Let's see who's company I keep. Wikipedia has a whole list dedicated to notable trekkies. Some of the ones that stand out for me:

Seth MacFarlane - the creator of Family Guy has long been known to be a trekkie. MacFarlane even made several cameos on Enterprise as "Ensign Rivers," a member of Trip's engineering staff.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker - According to Wikipedia, Stone and Parker called Star Trek "a kick ass show that's also a huge part of our pop culture landscape." I always knew that, as there are thousands of references to Star Trek throughout South Park...from incredibly subtle to blatantly obvious.

Bryan Singer - As I once read on a Star Trek message board, "anyone who doesn't belive that Singer is a trekkie just has to watch the end of X2." And I agree. It's such a clear homage to the end of The Wrath of Kahn. Singer even has a "blink and you'll miss it" cameo in Star Trek Nemesis. In fact, on the Nemesis DVD, there's a great Easter egg...a 3 minute interview with Singer about his cameo. In the interview, Singer tells a tale of, when he was a film student, he went to a lecutre on the Paramount lot, but he snuck away from his tour group and broke into the set of The Next Generation. They weren't filming, so Singer just hung out on the bridge until a security gurad caught him and threw him out.

Tom Hanks - Yup, the 3-time Oscar winning actor is a trekkie. Hanks was even the first choice to play Zephram Cochrane in Star Trek: First Contact, but he had to decline because he was so busy with his directorial debut That Thing You Do!.

Ben Stiller - Knew it. Tons of references throughout the films that Stiller has directed.

And the one that surprised me the most....

Stephen Harper - Yup. According to Wikipedia, our PM is a rabid trekkie - but only for the original series.

Anyway, I'm going to celebrate right now by popping The Voyage Home into the ol' DVD player.

Over at his MySpace page, Weird Al mentioned that he's in post-production on the music video for this song. Weird Al describes it as a "big budget, old school Weird Al video."

2. Pancreas

Apparently, an homage to pop legend Brian Wilson

3. Canadian Idiot

Parody of American Idiot by Green Day. Oh boy....

4. I'll Sue Ya

A Weird Al original. No information at this time.

5. Polkarama!

The requisite polka medly. No word yet on what to expect inside.

6. Virus Alert

Apparently, a tribute to computer viruses, spam, and everything else you get in your e-mail

7. Confessions part III

Parody of Confessions part II by Usher

8. Weasel Stomping Day

A Weird Al original. No information at this time.

9. Close but No Cigar

Apparently, this is about a cat that tries to hit on human women, before realizing that humans aren't his type. A lesser comedian would fill this with double entendres involving "pussy."

10. Do I Creep You Out

Parody of Do I Make You Proud by Taylor Hicks.

Weird Al's first American Idol parody.

11. Trapped in the Drive Thru

Parody of Trapped in the Closet by R. Kelley

Seeing as to how Trapped in the Closet is a 40 minute epic in 12 parts, rumor has it this'll be 10 minutes long and follow in the tradition of such Weird Al classics as Albuquerque and Genius in France.

In case you haven't heard it yet, it's done in the style of We Are the World and preaches the evils of downloading music.

And that's what we have to look forward to on September 26.

And, there was a DVD announcement today that I would be completely remiss in not mentioning. I've mentioned time and again that one of my favourite parts of DVD is how dead TV shows that didn't last very long eventually get a super-special edition treatment. And, the latest DVD TV show that I'd prayed for is finally coming out. On October 24, it's....

That's My Bush!: The Definitive Collection.

For those who don't remember, about 5 years ago, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker got it in their heads to do a sitcom. But they're sitcom would rip apart all the cliches and conventions of the genre. So, they decided to take a typical sitcom premise and apply it to...the White House.

The end result: That's My Bush!

George W. Bush was the well-meaning, but stupid, husband.

Laura Bush was the preachy and long suffering wife.

Karl Rove was the straight man.

And throw in such other cliches as the dumb blonde, the wacky next-door neighbour, and the wisecracking maid, and you had a sitcom.

It was damn funny TV. Apparently, it was cancelled because it was just too big a budget for Comedy Central.

But if you love South Park, you're gonna get a kick out of That's My Bush!.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

As I've said many times in the past, I love Tuesday, for it's the day of new DVDs!! There's not much out today, but two releases of note.

First up, there's Gojira: The Original Masterpiece. For the first time ever on DVD in North America, it's the complete, uncut, subtitled, original Japanese version of the original Godzilla film. And, of course, it's all beautifully digitally restored. It's a 2-disc set...disc 2 contains the more-well-known North American edit, known as Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

And, also out today, for the first time on DVD...the last Mel Brooks film to be released on DVD...it's the 1993 comedy classic...Robin Hood: Men in Tights! Seriously. this is the last Mel Brooks movie to come out on DVD...and as such, it has become one of the most requested DVDs. But it's out today, devoid of bonus features, and discount-bin-priced.

Monday, September 04, 2006

So, over at the official website, "Weird Al" Yankovic has revealed who all the animators are who have done music videos for his upcoming album Straight Outta Lynwood. See, his album's going to come with a DVD, with 6 new music videos on it...each one animated! Who are those six animators?

- Academy Award Nominee Bill Plympton. He did the one that's online right now, Don't Download This Song.

- John Krikfalusi, the creator of Ren and Stimpy.

- The entire team behind the brilliant stop motion animated cartoon, Robot Chicken. (Their video will actually be a segment on Robot Chicken on the 23rd.)

- Thomas Lee, who's best known work is the Shockwave cartoon The Star Wars Gangsta Rap

- David C. Lovelace, who created the Shockwave cartoon Retarded Animal Babies.

- Jim Blashfield, who did such classic music videos in the 1980s as "And She Was" by Talking Heads and "Boy in the Bubble" by Paul Simon.

I should mention that all these animated videos are for Weird Al's original songs...he's currently filming a live-action music video for the first parody, and in pre-production on a video for the second parody.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Just a quick note to let you know that I've got the latest episode of The Targ up! This week is Episode 17: A Tale to Tell. I try something different this week...this time, instead of doing a typical radio break between songs, I tell a whole story...about my centuries long quest to get a multiregional DVD player!

(Well, it's just 3 years long, but you know what I'm saying.)

Give it a listen!Other than that, I'm just lamenting the amount of money I spent yesterday. In addition to the aforementioned DVD player, I also bought myself a VCR. It may surprise you to know that I haven't upgraded all of my movies to DVD yet...and I still have a bunch of videos I watch from time-to-time. Besides, with season premiere season just around the corner, I wanted to be able to start watching Family Guy again.

And, I bought a vacuum cleaner. That was a flat out necessity, as my carpet was starting to get pretty vile.

And, as has become my way whenever I make a trip to Edmonton, I wind up blowing $100 on DVDs. This time, I splurged and got those ultra-rare Cadillacs of special editions...Criterion DVDs. I got Criterion's releases of Armageddon and Monty Python's Life of Brian. Each one was $50.

I can hear you all the way from where you are..."$50 FOR ARMA-FREAKIN'-GEDDON??" What can I say? It's one of those DVDs I've been lusting after ever since the medium was invented.